Democracy and Russia do NOT fit….
Hasn’t really …..
Ain’t gonna be ….
Donald Trump tried to get what Putin has….
It didn’t work….
Won’t work….
A legal ban on Russia’s leading opposition group. The attempted assassination of a Kremlin critic followed by his imprisonment. Near-blanket prohibitions on street protests. A tightening crackdown on independent media.
Russian domestic politics have taken a hard turn over the past year — perhaps, as some say, because of the leadership’s fear of economic discontent or, as others suggest, a consolidation of power in the Kremlin by a clan of security officials.
President Biden has said he will object to the crackdown inside Russia when he meets with President Vladimir V. Putin for the two leaders’ first summit meeting, next week in Geneva.
Mr. Putin, for his part, has said Russia’s domestic affairs are not open for discussion, and in any case not so different from the political churn in other countries.
“Views on our political system can differ,” Mr. Putin told the heads of international news agencies last week. “Just give us the right, please, to determine how to organize this part of our life.”…
In an interview Putin described Trump as “extraordinary” and “talented.”